Burnet’s LACare food pantry faces growing need to feed
Janie Howell (left) and Lottie McCorkle in the new T-shirts made for the 40th anniversary open house at LACare food pantry in Burnet. Howell is a member of the pantry’s Board of Directors and a volunteer. McCorkle is the nonprofit’s executive director. The open house was June 21. Staff photo by Suzanne Freeman
Demand for food at the Lakes Area Care emergency pantry in Burnet tripled over the past 18 months as it prepared for a 40th anniversary celebration, Executive Director Lottie McCorkle said.
LACare (pronounced la-care) will marked four decades of providing food for hungry families in the Highland Lakes with an open house June 21. The public was invited for light refreshments and a tour of the facility in the west parking lot of Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church, 507 Buchanan Drive in Burnet.
“Thanks to this community, we have been able to feed hungry people for 40 years now,” McCorkle said. “We have been able to fulfill a need to provide food to those who need it.”
LACare is open from 2-6 p.m. Mondays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays. The pantry lets people choose their own food once a month and come back for bread and produce once a week. As a member of the Hill Country Hunger Alliance, LACare uses its area-wide barcode and computer system to help keep track of the visits.
“We also give them a list of other food pantries they can go to,” McCorkle said, “but we never turn anyone away.”
LACare served its first families on June 3, 1985, from a room with two shelves in the old Masonic lodge in downtown Burnet. A donation of $800 from the Highland Lakes Ministerial Alliance, which consisted of five area churches at the time, helped set up the operation.
The pantry moved twice between 1986 and 1995 before finding a home in a double-wide trailer at Our Mother of Sorrows. McCorkle came on board in 2003; the current building was completed in 2005.
“When I started out, we had a little double-wide trailer that was in really bad shape,” McCorkle said. “The community helped build this building we are in now. We have a wonderful community that supports us.”
Currently, LACare serves an average of 40-50 families (around 150 individuals) a day, three days a week.
“In 2024, we served 5,057 households the whole year,” McCorkle said. “We have already served 5,000 households in the first three months of 2025.”
Money to purchase food is the pantry’s biggest need. The nonprofit buys from H-E-B, Sysco, US Foods, Central Texas Food Bank, and Walmart.
“We buy anywhere we see a sale,” McCorkle continued. “We always go for the best quality at the best prices.”
Central Texas Food Bank is the cheapest source of food, but its menu of choices has gone from nine pages before the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 to 1½ pages now.
Food also comes through “food-raisers,” rather than fundraisers, like the annual Picayune-KBEY 103.9 FM Food Drive in November and the Peanut Butter and Jelly Contest between the Burnet and Marble Falls school districts in the fall.
Monetary donations are given by churches and individuals through the LACare Board of Directors, which includes representatives from each of the 15 area churches supporting the pantry.
Janie Howell represents Burnet Presbyterian Church on the board and is one of the around 75 volunteers. She has been on the board for five years and was on hand during the open house to give tours and answer questions about LACare and its services.
“I see senior hunger as one of the major problems in the area,” she said. “They are on fixed incomes and have limited funds to spend and often have to choose between paying for their housing and medications or buying food.”
At least 50 percent of the pantry’s “neighbors,” what McCorkle and Howell call pantry clients, are older people, many suffering from hearing and vision issues. These neighbors receive additional help through the Healthy Option Program for the Elderly.
“HOPE provides extra food for those 60 years old and above,” Howell said. “We distribute that one day a month, the Thursday after the second Tuesday. That food comes from the Central Texas Food Bank.”
The remaining distribution dates for HOPE this year are: June 12, July 10, Aug. 14, Sept. 11, Oct. 16, Nov. 13, and Dec. 11.
LACare also provides health services, including blood pressure and glucose screenings, immunizations, and health care referrals, all of which can be found online at lacareburnet.org/services.html.
The June 21 open house was an opportunity to educate the community about LACare’s services.
“We want everyone to know we’re here, that this is a nice place to come, a friendly, warm place,” Howell said. “We want people to know they don’t have to be afraid to come if they need to. And for those who have never been here, but have contributed, the open house is a ‘thank you’ to them, to see what we have accomplished in the last 40 years. It’s lasted and lasted well. It’s not teetering, it’s strong.”
The pantry has shown its strength in meeting the ever-growing need for food security through continued community support.
“We are fortunate,” McCorkle said. “If we say we have a need, here it comes. We ask and we receive. Thanks be to God.”
Donations to LACare may be made through the website at lacareburnet.org; by mailing checks to LACare, P.O. Box 1115, Burnet, TX 78611; or by bringing food or monetary donations to the pantry at 507 Buchanan Drive in Burnet.